At this juncture, the most critical juncture of the year, and also the most crucial moment for profiting from the Little Cloud Interval trip, for Yu Qing, whether he was pretending to be wronged to win sympathy or playing the pity card was not important. What mattered was the effect. He was not afraid of others’ sarcasm. The goal was to defuse Meng Po’s questioning, a problem that could be big or small but was actually fatal.
As long as he resolved the issue of why he had picked peaches and dug up trees without authorisation, the subsequent questions would be about whether he could obtain them, no longer relating to life or death.
Now he had achieved his goal, successfully sidestepping Meng Po’s questioning.
Seeing Xiang Lanxuan get to the main point, Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie immediately tensed up.
Yu Qing replied with a matter-of-fact look, “Take them out to sell!”
At these words, not to mention the three from Xiang Lanxuan’s side, even Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie were stunned.
Xiang Lanxuan asked in astonishment, “Sell to whom?”
“Of course, whoever pays gets to buy.” Yu Qing naturally chimed in, then tugged at his clothes. “After coming in with you lot, I am truly penniless. After being pressed into the water and rinsed several times by Yun Xi, all my belongings were washed clean, even my trousers are gone. At any rate, I came in with the three seniors. Even if I have no fate with the treasures of Little Cloud Interval, I cannot make a wasted trip, right? Just treat it as basking in the three seniors’ glory. We should not go out empty-handed having lost our trousers. If word gets out later, it is a small matter for people to say I am incompetent, but if they say the places represented by the three seniors are too harsh, that would not be good.”
“No need to put tall hats on us.” Meng Po saw through it at a glance and asked suspiciously, “These things have all been contaminated by evil qi. They are useless after buying. Who would spend money on these things?”
Yu Qing said, “Senior Meng, standing at your heights, of course you would not buy, but others may not be the same. Think about it. After I drag these things out and spread the word that they are immortal peaches and immortal peach trees produced by Little Cloud Interval, could there really be no one willing to pay to see something new? Those wealthy people do not lack that bit of money.”
Xiang Lanxuan asked doubtfully, “These things have evil qi and cannot be used. If you sell them to people like this, would that not become fraud?”
Yu Qing said, “The way you put it, I have after all had some slight reputation. How could I possibly do something fraudulent? If it truly reached the point where people point at my spine wherever I go, what meaning would there be in earning this money? Before people buy, I will definitely tell them clearly that the items have been contaminated by evil qi. In short, it is a matter of willing buyer, willing seller. The items are definitely not good things, and definitely cannot be used, but they cannot help having the word ‘immortal’ attached. That would certainly arouse some people’s interest. As I said, wealthy people do not mind seeing something new. One buys a peach to take back and look at, another buys a peach to broaden their horizons. It is still possible, is it not?”
“As for those immortal peach trees, I do not believe the spirit plant sects would not be interested. Even if I tell them they have been contaminated by evil qi, so what? They would probably still buy them back to try. They would certainly harbour hopes that they might succeed in expelling the evil. I also understand Senior Xiang’s meaning. If the Great Enterprise Office takes the items to sell, there would naturally be many concerns. If sold cheaply, for the Great Enterprise Office, they do not lack that bit of money, so there is no point in the trouble. If sold expensively, when people later discover they truly cannot be used and suffer losses, they would certainly point fingers behind your backs, saying you rely on power to defraud or seize by cunning. You are of high status and nobility, people who need face. I am different. I have no face to maintain. It is just willing buyer, willing seller. Others cannot say anything about me.”
Hearing this speech, Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie’s gazes could not help drifting, secretly sizing up the three experts’ expressions and reactions.
The three including Xiang Lanxuan were already exchanging glances speechlessly, discovering that this already useless stuff, that fellow truly could take out to sell for money. It turned out he had even calculated future buyers. No wonder they heard these three fellows had not stopped for nearly ten days, constantly busy. It turned out they were stocking up.
Previously the three had wondered, if there really was some problem, that fellow was rather too brazen.
Yu Qing suddenly said again, “Three seniors, seeing that this junior helped you find Little Cloud Interval, it counts as having no merit but having done hard work. Could you help this junior with a favour?”
The three’s gazes immediately fixed on him in unison, not knowing what this fellow meant, daring to open his mouth and make demands?
Yu Qing quickly added, “Of course, this junior would not let the three seniors help for nothing. This junior can also help the three seniors with a favour.”
Tian Yu spoke out, “Help us? What favour can you help us with?”
Yu Qing waved his hand pointing at the peach orchard before them, and asked in return, “There are so many capable and strange people under heaven. Can the three seniors guarantee that there is definitely no one under heaven who can help these peach trees cleanse their marrow and expel evil to restore their purity?”
The three stared at him closely, not knowing what he was going to reveal next.
“I estimate that many spirit plant sects, even knowing the immortal peach trees are unusable, would still buy one or two to take back and tinker with. What if someone succeeds? I will tell buyers that I have connections to enter Little Cloud Interval and can supply in large quantities. Whether it is a spirit plant sect or some individual, under normal circumstances, if they cannot restore the peach trees to pure bodies, it is unlikely they would waste money to buy again. If someone buys again, that would be unclear. I will immediately inform the three seniors’ side.”
Yu Qing patted his chest to guarantee, but actually he knew himself he was talking nonsense. If that situation truly occurred, the likelihood that the same visitor would continue buying under their original identity was not great. They would probably have someone else come forward to buy.
With these three families’ well-informed intelligence, as long as they had that intention, no matter who bought the immortal peach trees to try planting, they probably could not escape the three families’ attention. Where would they need him to tip them off?
He was actually reminding the three before him, what other benefits there could be after taking these things out to sell. The peach trees were still here, and most of them were here. It did not affect the three families at all, and could give the three families more possibilities.
It was also a reminder that having him take the things out to sell was the most reasonable, and could be said to be his reward for finding Little Cloud Interval.
Of course, they could also not go through his hands, and could completely openly call upon the people of the world to help think of solutions together.
So there was indeed a large gambling component.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie held their breath and concentrated, not daring to breathe heavily.
The three expert seniors looked at Yu Qing, and a faintly smiling yet not quite smiling expression appeared at the corner of Xiang Lanxuan’s mouth.
Meng Po glanced around the peach orchard and suddenly said, “You are truly greedy enough, to actually have picked all the peaches.”
Yu Qing diverted the other’s words along the topic, “This junior has lived here for almost a year, and has always found it strange. These immortal peaches do not know how long they have hung on the trees, never falling, and never flowering and fruiting anew. Could it be because there are still fruits on the trees that they do not fruit? I also do not know how long it would take to flower and fruit anew after picking the fruits, nor whether the newly fruited fruits might then possibly be normal fruits.”
Speaking of this, the three expert seniors also had some thoughts. Meng Po said, “Then you also did not need to pick them all.”
Yu Qing said, “These things left on the trees cannot be used either. Keep them as scenery? This junior naturally wants to earn a bit more where possible.”
Meng Po asked, “How many did you pick?”
Yu Qing did not say how many pieces, but euphemistically said, “About nine hundred boxes in total.”
This number indeed did not give the three expert seniors much of a feeling.
Tian Yu suddenly returned to the earlier topic, “What favour do you want us to help with?”
Yu Qing immediately sighed and said, “The Little Cloud Interval exit is about to open. Looking at the last closing, the opening time is too short. For us three to move so many things to that mountain is already troublesome. To send them out through the exit in a short time is even more daunting. With so many people under the three seniors’ command, if they could help lend a hand, that would be good.”
As soon as his words fell, Tian Yu turned his head, turned around, and with a flash flew through the air and left.
Xiang Lanxuan also smiled and flashed away, looking like it was none of her business.
Meng Po glanced sideways and said, “Are you very short of money? Just casually writing and drawing some characters should be enough for you to eat and use for this lifetime, right?”
Yu Qing said in a small voice, “That is only how much money? I am only valuable if I do not write. If I write too much, I am no longer valuable. This junior keeps his word. Since I said I would abandon literature for martial arts, I will not go back on it.”
Although the words were not wrong, he actually did not know the true market value of his characters now.
Of course, there were some things he could not tell outsiders. If he truly continued to make a living under the banner of A Shiheng, not to mention other things, he would first have to kill all the people of Jiupo Village to silence them, or else he would sooner or later be found by people from his hometown.
“Not walking the proper path, insisting on walking the crooked path! My words, you had best take them to heart!” Meng Po gave a cold snort, his words carrying some implication, and after speaking he shot into the sky and left.
Yu Qing was choked speechless.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie both slowly let out breaths of relief, discovering that Old Fifteen was indeed someone who had gone to the capital and seen the great world, able to talk eloquently even before these people. The problem was that he had done something like snatching food from the tiger’s mouth before these people.
The two drew close to his side. Nan Zhu asked, “Did they agree or not?”
Yu Qing said, “Not refusing is enough. Do you still expect them to say, ‘Alright, they are given to you’?”
Nan Zhu asked, “Are the immortal peaches not to be our own cultivation resources? Did you not want to plant the peach trees yourself?”
Yu Qing looked at him sideways, “Swallowing everything into our own stomachs, can we swallow it all? Wouldn’t such ugly eating attract suspicion? Without converting some into money, where would I get the shipping fees to have people help us transport them? Can just the three of us carry so many things around? Wanting to keep things in hand is not simple. Set the price high, and naturally fewer will buy. If they truly all sell at high prices, we do not lose either. With money, are we afraid of not being able to buy better cultivation resources? As long as this deal succeeds, we will lack nothing for ten years!”
Thinking about it, that was true, and Nan Zhu immediately grinned with a crooked mouth.
Yu Qing said, “Alright, I will go find people to help carry things over. For the remaining trees, after you finish tying them, make a few more trips to carry them over yourselves. I have to stay there and guard the things.”
No problem. Nan Zhu immediately had him go quickly, very much recognising that division of labour had its differences. The remaining work, he and Mu Aotie would handle.
The key was that they did not dare to ask those people for help, nor did they think they could move them to help. Probably only Old Fifteen, this trickster, could make an appearance and succeed.
Yu Qing exited the peach orchard and headed straight for the exit direction.
He climbed to the mountain, first found a place to stack the things, then went to find the key personnel of the three factions, and opened his mouth saying, “Senior, could you dispatch some people to help me move some things? Oh, I just communicated with Senior Xiang Lanxuan about this.”
Did not those three not give a response to his face? He had those three’s own subordinates go ask for instructions again.
Sure enough, the other party was stunned upon hearing this, had him wait a moment, then quickly left, obviously going up to verify.